This invention relates to a device for shaking packages which contain a powdery or granular material and which are positioned on an intermittently driven conveyor provided with carrier elements for advancing the packages. Each package has an inner bag made of a sealable foil material which is surrounded by and bonded to an outer box made of a more rigid material. The outer box has, at one end face, a collar which extends beyond the inner bag and into or about which a lid may be inserted.
It is known to mount shaking devices on apparatuses for filling packages with powdery or granular material. Such shaking devices which densify the material in the package, have several advantages. By densifying the material, the latter assumes a lesser space per unit weight. Therefore, smaller packages may be used for the same amount of goods, thus resulting in the economy of the packaging material. Further, the goods, as they are transported in completed packages, for example by trucks, will not be further densified as a result of vibrations during travel, so that the packages, when presented to the final consumer, have a well-filled appearance.
The shaking of packages that have a flat bottom involves no difficulties. It is, for example, known to push the packages over a floor or rails which are vibrated. Packages which have a collar will be somewhat deformed at the edge of the package bottom when shaken; such an effect, however, is insignificant in the usual packages.
There are, however, packages which have an inner bag made of a sealable material which is surrounded by an outer box made of a more rigid material such as described, for example, in German Laid-Open Application (Offenlegungsschrift) No. 2,641,796. Such a package has, at one end face, a collar which projects beyond the inner bag. In the recess formed by the collar a lid may be inserted which, subsequent to the opening of the inner bag, serves for reclosing the opened package. For manufacturing reasons, in such packages it is necessary to first close the top having the projecting collar, then invert the package 180.degree. and fill the same through the still open bottom and subsequently close the bottom. Heretofore, it has not been possible to vigorously shake such packages in order to well densify the contents, since the packages, during filling, have rested only at the edges of the projecting collar on the vibrating bottom or vibrating rails. The vibration has caused a deformation of these edges with the disadvantageous result that the lid could no longer be inserted in a satisfactory manner into the recess defined by the collar.